A Russian Welfare Program for Billionaires

The government of Russia has begun a series of billionaire bailouts to help save some of the Kremlin's favored oligarchs from massive debts owed to foreign banks and other entities.

Some examples include:

Billionaire Oleg Deripaska's aluminum company RusAl would be the main beneficiary of a $10 billion state credit bailout to be disbursed by development bank VEB.

Some $3 billion was provided to billionaire Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group and state-controlled Rosneft to help refinance their foreign debts.

And that, friends, is still a lot of rubles. More to come from Mother Russia.

Billionaire Pickens gives additional US$63 million to Oklahoma State athletics

Billionaire booster T. Boone Pickens will give another US$63 million to Oklahoma State to finish athletic projects.


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Is Donald Trump a Millionaire?

A New Jersey state appeals court ruled yesterday that a New York Times reporter does not have to reveal the identity of three sources who told him that Donald Trump's true worth lies in the millions of dollars, rather than in the billions as the mogul maintains.

Trump sued Timothy L. O'Brien for $5 billion in Superior Court in Camden, arguing that O'Brien hurt his "brand and reputation" by labeling him a mere millionaire in TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald.

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Your World With ... Carl Icahn

Billionaire Investor Carl Icahn is interviewed by Neil Cavuto on the global sell-off, credit crunch, shareholder issues and other topics.

Read: transcript from "Your World With Neil Cavuto," October 24, 2008.

Oprah "just loves" the Kindle

Already very good friends with Jeff Bezos, Billionaire Oprah Winfrey today endorsed Amazon's Kindle on her show because, as she tells it ... she just loves it and it has changed her life, etc, etc...

And Jeff is even knocking off $50 bucks off the price of Kindle for you just because you're an Oprah fan and he knows you'll love it too! ( Just use secret code: OPRAHWINFREY )


Kindle: Amazon's Wireless Reading Device

Jim Clark, engaged to an Australian Supermodel

Billionaire Jim Clark, 64, former Stanford computer professor, co-founder of Netscape and dozens of other startups has put another business plan in motion - the acquisition of wife #4 - Kristy Hinze, 28, the host of Project Runway Australia.

You be the judge. (there are better pictures online, btw)


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Citizen Journalism 101 by Philip Anschutz

There's an interesting article on TechCrunch about the "citizen journalism" efforts by Examiner.com and owner Philip Anschutz.

Philip Frederick Anschutz has an estimated net worth of around $7.8 billion. He is ranked by Forbes as the 31st richest person in the USA by the Forbes 400.


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A Margin Call from Ford for Kirk

Kerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian - the Armenian-American billionaire and 90 something-year-old president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation has just initiated his own margin call by selling a good chunk of Ford Motor common stock, with the appropriate NYSE symbol of – F.

Kirk, if you would have asked us here at Think Billions, we could have forewarned you about this looooooser of an investment idea. We really would have.

The business press is writing amazing sentences about this portfolio adjustment, such as: “In an apparent vote of no confidence ….. “ Kirk has dumped Ford. You think???

In April “Kirk” began buying shares around $7.73. This week, Kerkorian's investment company, Tracinda Corp., sold over 7 million shares for an average price of $2.43 apiece. Yikes.

Overall, Kerkorian spent about $1 billion to acquire his stake in Ford. Yesterday, that stake was valued at $289.7 million - down 71%. He'll get rid of the rest on the next 5 cent up tick.

Carl Icahn places a buy order for Lions Gate

Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has bought into Lions Gate Entertainment (LGF).

LGF opened gap-up this morning in NYSE trading before settling down 6 cents per share to $7.31. Lions Gate has traded as high as 10.97 per share over the past 52 weeks.

Hopefully, for our billionaire investor, LGF will do much more for him than Oliver Stone and the movie 'W' has done for Lions Gate Entertainment.

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T. Boone Pickens to Lehman Brothers: You Screwed Me!

Billionaire Oilman T. Boone Pickens files $60 million lawsuit against Lehman Brothers


Pickens' lawsuit demands $60 million plus interest and attorney fees from a unit of the late great Lehman Brothers investment bank. Pickens personally claims the largest share of this money—$18.2 million. Four of his BP Capital hedge funds claim the balance (including one registered in the Cayman Islands, a popular tax haven).


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